If you remember what we talked
about on Sunday, we talked about the prodigal sons. This prodigal
son, we talked about the younger brother being discontent, his
status and position with the family. He went on to riotous
living. Prodigal, we began to understand
means that it was a complete waste of money. It was spending
with reckless abandon. It was like what happens in Vegas,
stays in Vegas, you know, you go into debt, a problem. And
we found that it was basically a series of being discontent. And then we saw and took into
reference the older brother who said to his dad, I stayed here,
I did everything you've asked me to do, you never gave me a
party. What's interesting is he never
asks for the party, but his dad certainly wouldn't deny him the
party. He doesn't ask for the fatted calf as the young son
did not ask for the fatted calf. The father proclaimed, let's
kill the fatted calf, the prize calf, and we can have a celebration
for my son has come home. He was once lost, now he's found.
Then we look at the older brother who says, you never even gave
me a goat. So there's some references there that's kind of interesting
that he doesn't say, why didn't I get the fatted calf? And again,
the Pharisees who he was talking to at the time, they would know
all of these little allegories. They would know all these little
innuendos. It was basically Jesus putting
screws to these guys saying, OK, look, if you can figure this
stuff out, you're going to understand that you're no better off than,
excuse me, the sinners and publicans and people who you would look
down upon and consider the drugs of society, that they're clamoring
to me and they're trying to find something. So pretty interesting
that. One thing that I overlooked,
and I was just doing a quick little review study was, what's
interesting is the older son not only is mad at his brother,
but he's mad at his father. And why is he mad at his father?
Because the self-righteousness that he exhibits is going to
fall under one of these five categories of what happens when
you practice self-righteousness. And then what I want to do is
I want to go over just the basic idea, something from Philippians
that we've been discussing in our Sunday school class, about
the idea of contentment. Both of these young fellows were
absolutely discontent. And I would venture to say, I
have no biblical backing for it, so please If you know better
than me, please let me know. Please illuminate my mind to
the real facts. I believe the older boy was actually
more discontent than the younger one was. Because here he had
been keeping the rules. He says he's been doing everything.
I've never left you. I've never done all these things
that my brother has done. But yet his father doesn't chastise
him either. He doesn't run him into the ground.
So as the righteous younger brother comes home, it's not like the
father saying to him again, give me the Excel spreadsheet. Let
me see your receipts for your partying. Who were you with?
What were you doing? How long were you there? What did you do? He
doesn't say any of those things. And he doesn't say to the older
brother anything with chastisement in his voice at all. He says,
look, if you would have asked, I would have given you all these
things. He welcomes the self-righteous. with open arms as much as he
welcomes the prodigal, righteous, living boy, his younger son. So when Pastor Clark talks about
the things about, you know, being too churchy or, you know, the
self-righteous, Jesus is there to accept those people with open
arms. And that's another thing that the parable teaches us,
is that even the self-righteous are welcomed with open arms.
Let's pray and then we'll begin to discuss these things. Heavenly
Father, we ask you to do just a few things with us tonight.
We ask you to use this time to glorify your name. Remove any
type of humanity from me. Let me be a mouthpiece for the
word of the Lord. Teach us to learn from our past tonight,
at least contemplate. Prepare our hearts and minds
for the future and cause us to love our life in Christ that
we have every moment. Let's not look beyond what we
have exactly right now because that's all we have. We ask these
things and pray these things in Christ's name. Amen. Okay,
so the older brother is self-righteous, he's legalist, he's discontented. There are some certain problems
that go along with self-righteousness and legalism. Number one is this,
a self-righteous hypocrite judges the sins of others while overlooking
his own. And that's pretty important.
Remember, the older brother looks and says, hey, he's hanging out
with a bunch of prostitutes. He doesn't know that. He assumes
that. And I always find that to be amazing. Because think
about how many times you have said to somebody, yeah, I was
over here doing this. They're like, you weren't doing that.
I know exactly what you were doing. And they assume something
that is not true at all. Now, you may have a track record
for doing those things. And I understand that. And we
all have track records. But the fact of the matter is you weren't
doing it that time. And for someone to assume you're
doing it, you automatically kind of get a little chip on your
shoulder that thing. You don't know what I was doing. You don't know nothing
about me. And then all of a sudden, now we have no longer dialogue. Now we have conflict. We no longer
have conversation. Number two, the self-righteous
and the legalists have a tendency to judge others based on selective
standards, not all on God's word. And so what they'll do is they'll
pick and choose which ones will be the best to hold you to and
what standards they'll hold you to without using God's word to
do that. Now, there's nothing wrong with
doing that if the standards that they're using are applicable
to themselves, they're applicable to the general public, and they
do indeed glorify God and they can go along with what biblical
standards are. But very rarely will people pick those things
out because those are things that are too well thought out.
And what happens is to start contemplating and beginning to
think about those things, which means you have to put your brain
in gear and at least be objective enough to say, well, you know
what? I'm not meeting those same standards. They will not do that
at all. Number three, they're more concerned
about external conformity than they are concerned about their
inner godliness. What do I look like to the outside
world? What is it that I'm positing
so someone would say, oh, he's such a great guy. I mean, look
at all these things that he does. And it's like the guy who's at the
temple who says, you know, I've given 10%, I've given all these
things, look at me, look at me. And the other one there said,
you know what? Be merciful to me, God. You know, I'm a sinner.
There's a difference between the inner godliness that one
seeks and the external picture that you want everybody else
to see. What does it look like to the outside world? That may
not be exactly what is going on. I have the luxury of taking
care of people. I have the luxury of taking care
of patients. The best part about my job is I take care of people.
The worst part about my job is I take care of people. And so
what ends up happening is you get to understand that there
is a read on people. And there is a whole lot to be
said. for when someone comes in and
they present themselves one way, and then you begin to talk to
them, and the makeup comes off, the mask comes off, all the charade
comes off, and you realize, you know what, they're just as jacked
up as everybody else I know. But the outside facade was that,
man, they have everything put together. I don't think I've
ever met anybody in the 35 years of taking care of patients that,
quote unquote, have it all together. None of us do. I don't. I know
that for a fact. That's why sometimes I don't
even look in the mirror. I don't want to see that reflection at times. because
I know what's going on in here. I know what desperation occurs
in here. I know what venomous things are
occurring in here. And so we have to understand
that everybody is walking a path. Everybody has some demons on
the inside. Everybody has some hard times
and carrying some load on their shoulders or on their heart that
we don't need to spend time judging them. We need to spend time listening.
We need to spend time loving. We need to spend time edifying
and building each other up in the Lord. Every one of us in
here has some crap we're going through. Every one of us. It
doesn't make a difference if it's big, if it's small. If I
think it's big to know what my problems are, I can't judge your
problems, they're big to you, they may be small to me, but
I'm not walking in your shoes. In the book The Kill A Mockingbird,
she says you never really know someone until you walk a mile
in their shoes. Because what they project on the outside may
not be anything that's happening on the inside. And a lot of stuff
that we project is so that we protect ourselves, like the Turtle
Wax, right? It's a hard shell finish. We
put that stuff on so that nobody can see the chinks in our armor.
They just keep seeing that beautiful, new, shiny car. When reality
is, the engine's falling apart, I'm getting lousy gas mileage,
the radio doesn't work, and the windows don't roll down. But
the car looks good on the outside. And that's exactly us putting
on that hard shell finish. Number four we're not interested in
helping others and that's a problem in and of itself We don't want
to help others grow in godliness, but only in gaining a following
right look at me I'm doing all these great things. Come on be
on my be on my team be on my bench and the reality is That's
all short-lived that really is and number five We justify ourselves
by comparing ourselves with others or by blaming others for our
sins and there's an old saying that says this look at don't
judge me just because my sins are different than yours and
And we have a tendency very, very often to give the finger
to point here out at somebody, but we neglect the three fingers
that are pointing back at us. We have a tendency to dislike
what we see in other people and what we know is happening to
ourselves and the same personality traits that we have in and of
ourselves. That's just being alive. That's just being a person.
And so we have to learn that there is a biblical sense to
finding contentment. And when we say contentment,
what I'm talking about means that the only way that we can
find true contentment is in the service of others. And that means
that we are found in Christ. And until we are found in Christ,
A lot of our motives are going to be based on selfishness and
what's in it for me, the bigger, better deal, all that kind of
stuff in comparison. That's not true service of others. You're helping somebody to make
yourself look good. And I'm not sure that that's
always the right idea. Can you look good helping someone?
Sure. Does God judge the externals?
No, he says, I'm looking at your heart. I want to know what's
in your heart all the time. So he's looking at our heart
issues. What does the scripture tell
us about our heart? It is what? It is desperately wicked until
it goes through a change when we understand that the shed blood
of Christ has been for us and we can now find ourselves under
the umbrella of exactly what Christ has done for us we now
are allowed to do for other people. So each of the boys in the parable
are malcontents, as are all of us. Because of our discontentment,
we seek out what gives us pleasure. We don't like the discontentment.
The discontentment is uneasy. It doesn't feel good to us. So
what is our natural proclivity? It's to do something that makes
us feel good. We are after that dopamine hit,
we're after the serotonin, we're after the norepinephrine up here.
We want to feel good. And we want to feel good not
only physically, but we want to feel good mentally and we
want to feel good emotionally. And what is one of those things
that help us do that? Is sin. Now you think to yourself,
what do you mean by that? Think about how many times you
have been upset or discontented in some way, and you end up doing
things that are absolutely Unbelievable. You would look and say, wow,
I can't believe I just did that. I can't believe I just thought
that. I can't believe I just wished that on that person. I
can't believe that I am moving in that direction. See, the problem
with self-absorption is that it's antithetical to Jesus' teaching
to love our neighbor as ourselves. But that's where it becomes hard
because we're too busy loving ourselves all the time to love
another person. Serving others is what we are
free to do as Christians. The young ruler comes to Jesus
and says, what do I need to do to inherit the kingdom of God?
What does he say? Love the Lord with all your heart, all your
mind, all your soul and Go serve your neighbor, go take care of
your neighbor, love your neighbor as yourself. And so there's always the other-centeredness
in the gospel message. Christ did not need to come for
himself. He needed to come for the sinners
that we are that need to be saved, that need to be removed from
the wrath of God. He was other-centered all the
time. He even says in the garden, if
this cup can pass from me, let it pass from me. He knew what
was heading his way. But he says, not my will, not
my self-centeredness, but your will, an other-centeredness of
his Father who is in heaven. And that's a big, huge difference
between being self-centered and being other-centered. In Philippians
2, 3 through 11, the only person enslaved to Christ is the free
person to love and serve another person. Can there be a great
deal of satisfaction from helping someone else out? Sure. There's
nothing selfish about having the satisfaction of knowing you're
helping somebody out. I mean, that's good. That's what
we should have. When the ends of helping somebody
out and the means of helping somebody out is only for your
own gain, you're no longer in the right game. You've stepped
over into the selfishness of, what's in it for me? How am I
looking to the outside world? Do I always look good to somebody
else? Am I heading in the right direction? Because, gosh, Kyle's
gonna look at me and say, yeah, man, what a great guy, he's heading
in the right direction. That's the wrong attitude to have. I
want to help because it's the right thing to do to have help. As Tullian to Vigin says, look,
God doesn't need your help, but your neighbor does. Go help them.
And sometimes that's hard. That means you're going to get
punched in the face. You're going to get kicked in
the you-know-what. It's okay. Those are all baked in the cake
when you're helping somebody else. But you know what? Are you robbing
somebody of some of their blessing by letting them help you? How
many people do you know that are very willing to step out,
I mean, to the point of discomfort, to the point of, man, they're
putting themselves on the line to help other people, but they
are the last people to ever ask for help. I believe those people
are robbing another of the blessing that somebody else can help them
with something. They're usually needing help in some area all
the time. And they need to have that wall
broken down that says, hey look it, I need some help too. If
you need help, what do you do? You ask. It's really hard. Man, I need help. I think I'm
going off the deep end here. Hey man, I see that train coming
on the tracks and I'm running to the light. I put my ear on
it, man, it's right there. Help. Help. Help. Help me. Yeah, ask for help. Be a blessing
to somebody else by letting them help you, letting them love you
unconditionally as you're so willing to do for other people.
Jealousy, anger, self-absorption, they're all symptoms of the greater
discontentment with where you are in reference to Christ. One
of our problems that we have is we know so many people that
are unhappy because they're waiting for a time when everything is
perfect. They are waiting for a day when they wake up and everything
clicks, when nothing is going wrong, the day will never come.
There will always be suffering, there will always be discontent,
there will always be something that goes wrong. That's baked
in the cake called life. I can't ever recall a day that
was absolutely perfect in every way, shape, and form in my 57
years. It just hasn't happened. Are
there minor glitches? Sure. Are there major glitches?
Oh, there was two. For sure. For sure. But baked
in the cake is it's going to go wrong. Things are going to
spiral. in my day to day. When you deal
with people, people are messy. I'm messy. I'm a hot mess most
of the time. All I do is cover it up so you
guys don't know where the hot mess is coming from. And we'll
talk about that in just a little bit. But the fact of the matter is,
nothing goes right all the time. The question is, are you prepared
in your mind and in your body and in your soul to accept that
nothing is perfect? Are you perfect? Then why would
you expect your neighbor to be perfect? Does he have a lousy
situation? Sure he has a lousy situation.
Just so do you. Don't judge him because his situation
is any better or any worse than you. Now you're in the business
of judging and that's not your job. Your job is to love and
to serve, not to judge. God has enough on his plate to
do that. Let him do the judging. Think of the Apostle Paul in
2 Corinthians when he prays three times for that thorn to be removed.
And God answers what? My grace is sufficient. Was he
in a season of discontent? Yeah. Nobody knows, by the way,
what he was discontent about. He never says that he had a thorn
in his side. He never said that he had a problem
with his vision. We can assume several things.
The problem is he had something that was causing him some disconcerting. some discontentment, something
was there, and he prayed. And he says in that prayer that
God's strength is magnified through our weaknesses. Is discontentment
a weakness? I don't know. I mean, doesn't
everybody have seasons of discontent? I mean, everybody has a season
of discontent. Is anger a sin? No, it's not a sin unless you
make it sinful to be anger. We have emotions that God put
in us. Every one of our emotions is
God put in us. We're fearfully and wonderfully
made. We have fear, we have depression, we have anxiety. There are times
that we need all of those things. But when they become overwhelming
and it drives us to self-absorption, it drives us to always looking
in or navel-gazing on ourselves, now we start the problem. And
we get on that hamster wheel and never get off because we're
always looking internal for the answers, and the internal is
lousy. We've got to step off the wheel and look outside, and
as Christians, we look to Christ and what's been accomplished
at the cross. As non-Christians, what can we do? We can look at
Christ and look at the cross and see what the Christians are
doing and saying, hey, you know what? You're a Christian, your
life is a mess too. Yeah, absolutely. Whose life isn't a mess? If your
walk is to become a Christian and think that your life will
never be messy, you're walking in the wrong direction. As a
matter of fact, it is my contention that becoming a Christian, your
life gets even more messy because you're constantly aware of the
things that you're doing and you're thinking. You're like,
oh my gosh, how could I be thinking that? You've got to be kidding
me. I'm a Christian. Yeah, we all think the same things.
That's why we can all laugh, and we can all laugh with the
familiarity that that's exactly the path that we're on. So we're
going to jump into the text right now, and I'm just going to read
something from Philippians 4.6. Be anxious for nothing raise
your hand if you've ever been anxious. There we go Okay, I'm
gonna give you some advice from the right from the good book
be anxious for nothing The word anxious comes from a Greek word
that we would use to be worrisome And so when you look at the word
anxious its root meaning comes from the Greek word Worry now
how many of you would say your mom would say? Oh, you're such
a worrier and Okay, well, you know when we worry when we're
anxious That is a great way to know you're walking away from
God as opposed to walking towards them or with them Because you're
trusting more in your worrisomeness and you're trusting more in your
anxiety. You're trusting more in your depression You're trusting
more in your you're trusting more in your you're trusting
more in your than what God has to say to you and what the Spirit
of God can do to your heart When I'm anxious, what I do personally
is I ask myself this question. Is this a life or death situation?
99.999999 times the answer is always what?
No. I have a little something on
my phone that says, you're doing pretty well. You have survived
100% of every bad day you've ever come in contact with. And
that's a pretty good track record, which means I don't have much
to be anxious over. If I'm not going to jail, if
the government doesn't knock on my door, if there's not a
heavy set fellow wearing a fluorescent orange coat with a bulldozer
on my front lawn, I'm having a good day. I'm having a good
day. Very little to be anxious over. But yet we find ourselves
what? Anxious all the time. Anxiousness, worry, depression,
anxiety, those are seasons of discontent. Those are seasons
of discontent. Was the young boy riotous? Did
he have ADD? Was he anxious? I don't know.
We can insert those things. We can assume those things. I
don't think they're going to give us anywhere. But think about
that. Be anxious for nothing, but in everything, everything,
everything, by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving. Let your requests
be known to God, and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding,
will guard your hearts and minds through Jesus Christ." Interesting
he uses the term hearts and minds. Be transformed by the renewing
of your minds. He's constantly referencing the
Apostle Paul, things that happen here, the mind. Think about the
undomesticated beast that is in your head called your mind. Your imagination can get you
to places that are phenomenal. You can go from zero to stupid
in no time flat by just letting this thing run wild. Right? Be anxious for nothing. What
if I fumble up there and I say the wrong words? OK, so I fumble
up there and say the wrong words. I'm not going to die if I do
that. it's going to be okay. How many of you do have a fear
of public speaking? The last thing you would want to do is
come up here and do any of this. That's anxiety. That would be
worrisomeness. And my question is this. I hope
nobody's going to take a shot at me. But statistically, nobody's
going to take a shot at me. So when we start breaking these
things down, we find that what the Greek Stoic philosopher Seneca
said, we have a tendency to suffer more in our imaginations than
we do in reality. And think about how many times
that undomesticated beast, called your imagination and your mind,
runs wild and puts you into places you have no business visiting. Remember the kid's story where
the wild things are? The fun little story for the kids? It's
all based on his imagination running crazy. And where the
wild things are, that's where the wild things are, is right
in here. So that's 4, 6, 13. Finally, brethren, whatever things
are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just,
whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things
are of good rapport, if there's any virtue, if there's anything
praiseworthy, meditate upon these things. So now I'm anxious, I'm
depressed, I'm filled with anxiety. My question is, am I focusing
on things that are true? noble, just, pure, lovely, of
good report, virtue, or praiseworthy? Or am I meditating on where my
imagination is running to drive me further into my season of
discontent? It's almost impossible, as a
matter of fact, it is impossible for your mind to occupy two thoughts
at any given time. It's usually one thought at a
time. Now, it can be very rapidly in succession, but we don't ever
have two thoughts at the same time. So how can we be anxious
and think on things that are true? We can't, but what do we
do? We run to the things that cause
us the anxiety because of our season of discontent. Some of
us love our seasons of discontent because we're so happy and familiar
and comfortable with our seasons of discontent that we have to
move away from that. But I rejoiced in the Lord greatly,
and now, at last, your care for me has flourished again. Though
you surely did care, but you lacked opportunity. Now that
I speak in regard to need, for I have learned, in whatever state
I am, to be content. I know how to be abased, and
I know how to abound. Everywhere, in all things, I
have learned to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and
to suffer need. Now I can do all things through
Christ. who strengtheneth me." That's
the contentment, is that he's learned the highs, he's learned
the lows, he's learned the in-betweens, and realizes that now, because
of those things, he can be content. Have you ever been hungry? Absolutely. And when you're hungry, doesn't
that first piece of bread or that first meal afterwards make
a whole bit of difference? Of course it does. Of course
it does. You ever been tired? Yeah, right? That first little bit of sleep,
how luxurious is that? And the fact of the matter is,
when you have a reference to the highs and to the lows, then
your seasons of contentment are much easier because what you
realize is, I've eaten too much. That's not a good feeling either.
and I've been starving. Man, that's not a good feeling
either. I've slept in rocky beds. Not a good feeling. I've slept
in beds that are too comfortable that I slept with my back hurting
in the morning. Not good either. But I have a reference. And because
of the situation of being high and being low, I know that I
can now accomplish all things through Christ who strengthens
me. I cannot accomplish all things through Christ, period. I can
accomplish all things through Christ Who strengthens me, that's
where the strength is coming from. That's where my joy in
the season of discontent can now come from. Contempt means,
it's not all about me. If you have contemplated that
as you breathe right now, there's another person taking their last
breath. Stop complaining and learn to live the life with what
you have and where you are. Whatever is befalling you and
causing you to curse, to suffer with the curse of discontentment,
that shall pass. It may be a kidney stone that's
shaped like barbed wire, but it's going to pass. as my friend
Jimmy the Beast tells me all the time. It will be different
in 24 hours. Could be worse. And it could
be a whole lot better, but it's going to be different in 24 hours.
Give yourself a little time for that season of discontentment
to maybe wind its way down. Self-absorption is venomous.
The only lasting antidote is the gospel of Christ and Him
crucified. Again, I quote Tullian to Vigin a lot, but he is right
on. Quote, all the good stuff that
is already ours in Christ settles at the bottom when we focus on
ourselves more than Jesus. After all, Peter began to sink
when he took his eyes off Jesus and focused on his own performance.
Theologian John Owen said, quote, What is the gospel? Not my work
for Jesus, but Jesus' work for me. In other words, holiness
happens not by looking at ourselves, but looking at Jesus. Therefore
it takes the loving actions of our Christian brothers and sisters
to remind us every day of the gospel that Everything we need
and look for in the things smaller than Jesus is already ours in
Christ when this happens the good stuff rises to the top The
Puritans used to say that far too many Christians live beneath
their level of privilege. Therefore, I need to be told
by those around me that every time I sin, I'm momentarily suffering
from an identity crisis, forgetting who I actually belong to, what
I actually want as my remade core, and all that is already
mine in Christ. The only way to deal with remaining
sin long-term is to develop a distaste for it in light of the glorious
riches that we already possess in Jesus. I need my real friends
to remind me of this every day. Please tell me again and again
that God doesn't love me more when I obey or less when I disobey. Knowing this actually enlarges
my heart for God and therefore shrinks my hunger for sin. So
don't let me forget it. My life depends on it. We're
to lift one another up in prayer. We're to edify one another. We're
to be merciful to one another, especially as Christians. Let
the world look at us and say, what is different about them?
How can they love so freely? Because we are loved so freely. Think of how we would present
to a thrice holy God who knows no sin, who can't even look upon
sin, so much so he cannot look upon sin, that Jesus yells from
the cross, cries from the cross, admonishes his own Father from
the cross, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Because
God cannot stand to look at sin. And when he looks at sin and
he sees Christ, he sees the imputation of Christ's righteousness and
what Christ accomplished at Calvary in that sacrifice that has been
imputed to us. He doesn't see the negativity
that we see when we look at one another. He doesn't see big.
He doesn't see small. He doesn't see long hair, short
hair. He doesn't see color of skin. He looks at a heart that's
been circumcised by the shed blood of Christ that is brand
new. It's now a heart of flesh. It's not a heart of stone. It's
not a heart of coal. It's not a heart of sinful desires.
Do we still maintain the level of sinful desire once we've been
saved? Probably less. But is it there?
Absolutely. Are we new creations created
in Christ Jesus unto good works? Absolutely. Do we be bummed out
at our sins? I was going to use an expletive
there. Are we upset with our sins? Of course. See, here's
one of the problems. I remember Pastor Clark saying
to me, When he was teaching me the gospel, he used to say, the
difference between someone saved and unsaved at that time is,
the saved person lays awake and thinks, how could I think and
do and act those things? The unsaved person says this, goodnight. And there's absolutely no thought
process or no rumination of things that have gone on in your mind
and in your day at all. And that's a problem. That's
why we must take inventory and look and say, hey man, I had
a pretty good day. Hey man, you know what? I wasn't
as nice to Sherry as I thought I could have been. Maybe I could
have held the door before or let her go before me. Those are
the things when we're taking inventory of our lives. So we
have something to say, hey, you know what? I'm getting a little
bit better. Does God care if you're getting a little bit better?
I'm sure he does. Is he going to kick you out of heaven or
keep you in? That's not on you. That's on what Christ has accomplished
at the cross. You do you really think that God needs your help?
I don't think so because if God needs our help then he's no God
at all What happened to his omnipotency? He's supposed to be all-powerful
if he needs what he's made to aid him in the book of Romans
It says does not the the lump of clay doesn't say to the potter.
Why did you make me this way? the potter has Dominion and power
over the clay to make what he wants and that's what Jesus and
that's what God has done for us So here's my questions a couple
of questions for you Are you discontented with your life?
Why? Do you wish you were taller or
smaller? Why do you wish you had a better job or a job? Why? Do you wish you never took the
first hit shot puff pill injection? Why I wish I had a better family
Why? I wish this year would go by
a little bit faster. Why? I wish I made more money. I wish I wasn't so lonely. I
wish we didn't have silly rules on dating. I wish we weren't
having hot dogs again. I wish we were out of here. Why? All of those are microcosms and
micro seasons of discontent. Think about those things, how
they thread through our every warp and woof of thinking and
our daily thinking and our daily interactions that we have just
with our mind. So we say, yeah, you know what?
I'm going to be, I am content. I can answer those questions
and I find that I didn't answer positively or negatively to each
one of those. I feel like I'm a content person.
Okay, here's some other diagnostics. Can you be content when you relapse?
Was there a season of discontent before you relapsed? Will there
be a season of content knowing that you got to walk the walk
of shame and say, oh, I relapsed. But nobody cares. You care. You inflate it. You make it bigger
than it always has to be. Hey, man, look at me. I relapsed
for the 28th time. OK, well, we don't particularly
care. We care that you relapsed. But come on, let's get back on
the right path. And let's get this problem solved
another time. Can you be content when you lose a job? Can you
be content when your boyfriend or girlfriend breaks up with
you, your husband or wife walk away from you? See, those are
tough seasons now. So let's get down to where the
rubber meets the road here. Can you be content in the miscarriage
or the loss of a child? A good friend of mine just lost
his second kid. Can't imagine that. Oh, my god. Can you find contentment when
your mom or dad or brother or sister gets diagnosed with a
terminal condition? Can you find contentment when
your best friend disses you? Can you find contentment when
you're broke? You would find so much discontentment.
Everyone in this room would find more discontentment by winning
the lottery than they would by losing all their money. Because
what would we do in this room if we won the lottery? I'm out. I can afford it now. Right? Hey, let me tell you something.
You know why people go broke when they win the lottery? Because
they couldn't handle the $10,000 they had in their bank account
before they won the lottery. What makes you think they're
going to handle the $10 million in their bank account? Now they
can afford to be exactly who they are. And you know what?
If Kyle doesn't like who I am, I can buy another Kyle. Think
about it. Think about people who win the
lottery. Their lives go down the what? Yeah, the pooper, but
it's terrible. Terrible. Why? No contentment. Can you be content when church
service goes too long? Just kidding. Can you be content
when you realize that you actually hate the struggle that you're
in the middle of? Can you be content when your hair turns
gray, your belly sags, and you got man boobs? Can you be content
when your kids are a jerk? Can you be content when your
kids think you're a jerk? Can you be content when you are a
jerk? Those are the little bits I regret. Can you be content
when your friend overdoses and dies? Can you be content that
you can pay your car off and then someone hits it that same
day? And can you be content that Christ came to earth to do for
us what we could never do for ourselves, and that we can truly
rest and have peace with God by having a relationship with
Christ? That's contentment. Grace is incredible when we compare
it to sin, because sin takes us farther than we want to go,
it keeps us longer than we want to stay, and it costs us more
than we're willing to pay. But grace? Grace meets us where
we're at, but never leaves us where we are. Grace is always
sufficient when you understand it comes from Christ and what
he accomplished at the cross. Can you be content and be thankful? Are happy people thankful or
are thankful people happy? Thankful people are happy because
there's always something to be thankful for. Grace means that
every stupid, iniquitous thing you've done now serves a purpose.
So quit beating yourself up. Quit lashing out at yourself
and self-flagellating over the sins that you've committed and
the thoughts that you have. They're now serving a purpose to keep
you at the cross and keep Christ and what He's accomplished on
your behalf in front of you 24-7, 365, only for the rest of your
life. That's contentment, is knowing
exactly that. As we've prayed before, nothing is perfect, life
is messy, relationships are complex, outcomes are uncertain, and people
are irrational. Are we really haughty enough
to think that we're not in that same part of that? I am far from
perfect, I'm a hot mess, I constantly bring complexity to my relationships,
I exude uncertainty, and by golly, my self-absorption and discontentment
is totally irrational. Discontentment is venomous and
the only antidote towards it is always going to be found in
Christ There's a very simple saying in Latin and some of you
may know who I'm talking about if you've studied any philosophy
There's a guy by the name of Frederick Nietzsche. He's a German
philosopher he talked about something called amore fati and amore fati
is a latin term that basically means love of my fate or love
of my life and he goes on to say here that it's used to describe
an attitude in which one sees everything that happens in one
life including suffering and loss as good or at very least
necessary Nietzsche's love of fate naturally leads him to confront
the reality of suffering in a radical way. When we use the word suffering,
think of the term of discontent. Think of the term of anger. Think
of the term of anxiety. Think of any term you want to
put in there as far as suffering, which means you are in a season
of discontent in some way, shape, or form. For to love that which
is necessary demands not only that we love the bad along with
the good, but that we view the two as inextricably linked. Only
great pain, says Nietzsche, is the ultimate liberator of the
spirit. I doubt that such pain makes us better, but I know that
it makes us more profound because we're forced to confront ourselves.
He says here that the challenge for all modern men is to create
and live by affirming values, to find meaning in a world that
has become void of any such thing. In the present age, we often
feel like we're straying as though an infinite nothing. Nietzsche's
exhortation to all is to fight against this empty drift, to
become who you are, to love the suffering and challenge as much
as you love ease and comfort. He says here that the most spiritual
men, listen to this, this is highly profound, highly profound.
The most spiritual men, as the strongest, find their happiness
where others would find their destruction. In the labyrinth,
in hardness against themselves and in others. Their joy is self-conquest. It becomes them in their nature,
in their need, and their instinct. Difficult tasks are a privilege
to them. To play with the burdens that
crush others is their recreation. That is heavy, heavy thought
processes in understanding seasons of discontent. What are you so
discontent about? You're discontent because you're
running away from Christ and Him crucified, not to Him and
Him crucified. Think of where you can lay every
sin, where you can lay every burden down, is at the foot of
that cross, and know that your sins have been forgiven. You
are free to take second place. You are free to lose. You are
free to be who you are because who you are individually makes
you beautiful because God made you that way. If all of us were
the same, it would be boring. I want to have a conversation
with Kyle because Kyle doesn't think like me. If I had a conversation
with only people who think like me, I'd have no conversation.
I would just keep the conversation here. Where is your season of
discontent? What is the root cause of your
season of discontent? Self-conquest doesn't mean looking
in here. Self-conquest means looking unto
Jesus. That's conquest because every
time I lose, I'm free to lose because Jesus won everything
for me. I can be small because Jesus is big. I can look and
love Sherry because I've been loved unconditionally and I can
love someone else unconditionally. I don't want to love Kyle because
Kyle can do something for me. I want to love Kyle because I'm
called to love my brothers and sisters in Christ. Where's your
season of discontent? Self-absorption? Self-conquest
means I'm going outside of myself to where all things have been
solved and that's at Calvary. Forgive them, they don't know
what they're doing. How many of you can look in the
mirror and say, he's talking to me when he says that, I still
don't know what I'm doing. Absolutely, absolutely. The seasons
of discontent, is it a season or is it a reason? Are you looking
beyond your own selfishness and saying, what's in this? Yeah,
what's in it for me? But what's in it for me to be
bigger, better, stronger in my walk with Christ? And then I
trip, and I fall, and I fail, and I bring Sherry down with
me, and I kick Kyle on the way down. It's OK. I'm going to get
back up. I'm going to help Sherry up.
I'm going to go ahead and nurse Kyle back to good health. And
I'm going to keep on walking. And then you know what I'm going
to do when I get to row two? I'm going to fall down again. But
I'm going to get up. Because as Nietzsche says right
here, to play with burdens that crush others becomes my recreation. Which means I'm free to love,
I'm free to obey, I'm free to do what Christ and God commands
of me because it's already been done for me. I can't lose. And when you know you can't lose,
you're a dangerous character. To find contentment, you must
be found in Christ. Then your hearts can sing with
profound joy that I have breath in my lungs, there are people
in my life who believe in me, I have a thrice holy God who
is working out my salvation each day, that grace and mercy to
do what I'm called to do is mine, and that the journey, be it good,
bad, high or low, has brought me here to where exactly I am,
because all we have is right now. What would happen yesterday
is long gone. We don't know if anything's going
to be around tomorrow. This could all be eliminated
overnight. But we have exactly right now.
Can you be content in the moment? Can you find contentment outside
of yourself? As Christians, can we find 100%
of our contentment in what Christ has accomplished for us? I beg
of you and I pray for you Please let that be your answer is yes,
I can I can rest in Christ